Tender Mercies in the Wake
by waitingtofly
Summary: What happened exactly between those moments when Prudence died and her funeral? A look at what may have occurred between Piper and Leo.


**Tender Mercies in the Wake**

Piper Halliwell's pulse and head pounded. Slowly, she opened her brown eyes. Her long chestnut brown hair was stuck damply to her face and neck. Her fingers were still tightly clenched into fists, and it hurt when she tried to straighten them.

"Piper…" she heard the deep, masculine voice that belonged to her husband Leo Wyatt.

Piper blinked and focused her vision on Leo's relieved face. She turned her vision slightly to the right above him and saw a relieved Phoebe and Cole. But then she twisted her neck, painfully, to the left and she felt the air rush out of her lungs fast.

There beside her on the floor, lying still, blood draining from her nose and ears, was her beloved older sister Prudence.

"No…" Piper sobbed immediately, shaking her head. She sat up a little too quickly. Blood rushing to her head. Again, her pulse and head pounded.

"Piper…" Leo's voice started again. Gently, he placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her at bay.

"No!" now Piper was shaking her head furiously. Prudence Halliwell was dead. Immediately, everything that happened before she woke came rushing back to her memory in an awful flood.

The demon Shax bursting like a whirlwind into their beautiful red painted Victorian home. Shax killing the innocent that they were supposed to have protected. Then both her and Prue flying backwards, and crashing into the wall of their home. Glass and wooden debris everywhere.

Breathing now ragged, she turned on her husband. "Why didn't you save her first?" she demanded.

Leo's mouth opened but then closed. No explanation, but his cerulean blue eyes were very contrite.

Piper shook her head furiously, already coming to an assumption. "You healed me first because I'm your damn wife. But you should've healed Prue first because she was the best! You should've healed Prue!"

At that moment her sobs, and the trauma from crashing and being healed in just the nick of time overtook her already trembling body and made her start to collapse.

As Piper's head dropped to the indentation between Leo's neck and shoulder, as he caught her, she heard Phoebe gently say. "Piper….honey….you know Leo can't heal the dead. She was already gone when he got to her."

Those words chilled Piper more than any nightmare ever could or would. Of course she knew that her White Lighter husband couldn't heal the dead. But how could Prue could've possibly been gone before she was? They had both crashed at the same time….hadn't they? Hadn't they?!

Three hours later after the police had come and taken both the innocent and Prue away to the morgue, and Piper and Phoebe had answered a lot of questions. And after Cole used a glimmer to fix their house….

Piper could feel a cold spot in her chest. She pressed her right palm of her hand to the spot, but it refused to abate. She filled her silver tea kettle with water to the brim and gently set it on her gas stove burner. The mere thought that her beloved sister Prudence was dead, still ransomed her heart. The Power of Three gone like that in a powerful Thanos like snap!

Such a horrific day, and then here her and Phoebe had to try and keep their stories straight to the police so that they themselves wouldn't be accused of murder in their home. Let alone their demonic boyfriend and White Lighter husband as well. All for the sake of their secret. That they were witches. But now what good was it to even be a witch without the Power of three? Without their beloved sister Prue?

She rubbed the cold spot on her chest, and then she decided to check her tea kettle. Nope, still not boiling yet.

Her mind suddenly filled with shouts and screams from the innocent that had been killed before Shax layed into her and Prue. Her nose remembered the scent of burning flesh. Her feet remembered how it felt when she was swept off of them abruptly and sent flying painfully into the wall of her house. Crashing….glass shattering….losing consciousness…..

She forced her brown eyes open and stared at her tea kettle. You are in the kitchen. You are alive. Phoebe's alive. You are safe. Leo saved you. He healed you. You are safe because Shax assumes that the Power of Three is no more because he thinks that both you and Prue are dead even though it's just Prue.

Her heartbeat began to slow down back to somewhat normal, and she reached up to gently rub her aching temples.

The water in her tea kettle was finally boiling. Whistling could soon be heard from her tea kettle. Piper clicked her stove burner off, filled the biggest mug she had, and dropped in a tea bag of Chamomile tea. Chamomile tea was supposed to calm the nerves. Maybe in her tea she would find a gentle mercy. She picked it up and snuggled it into her chest where her cold spot still was. She watched the water change colors. Desperately, she tried to thaw her cold spot…but it was stubborn.

Suddenly, she was acutely aware of a stench. Confused and annoyed, she set her steaming mug of chamomile tea down on the marble kitchen counter. She pulled her chestnut brown hair around and sniffed it. More stink. And then she noticed a small sliver of wooden debris in her hair. Great….she had forgotten about that. To clean herself up after everything that had happened.

No wonder Phoebe had given her a concerned look as she had gone upstairs to her room with Cole for the night for solace, and left her alone in the kitchen. Piper wondered if Phoebe had left her enough hot water in the shower.

Maybe the shower would be a tender mercy like she had hoped her chamomile tea would.

There was indeed hot water left. Piper parboiled herself, watching the bruises left on her from earlier today bloom like flowers all over her body. She sucked in her breath when scrapes and scratches made themselves known. She scrubbed every inch, every crevice. Briefly, her hands graced over the marred flesh that was left from where Leo had healed her. It still felt a little tender to her surprise, but at least it didn't hurt as much. She slathered Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner into her hair, and rinsed it out, letting the stench of today, and all the dirt and grime from her earlier shattered home swirl down the drain.

Piper cried. She tried to keep quiet with her crying because of Phoebe, Cole, and Leo. She didn't want to be bugged….not really…she wanted this moment to herself. Or at least she thought she did. It was useless though to keep quiet.

She felt strong arms slip around her and gently pull her out of the steaming shower. When she opened her eyes she found a fluffy green towel being wrapped around her shivering, dripping wet body. And then she was being held close to Leo's chest. His radiantly warm chest. Ah, that cold spot on her chest was finally warm. There was the tender mercy, her cold spot had craved. She felt the tension that had been in Leo's muscles from earlier in the day, seep away. His hand stroked up her back, and then back down. And she buried herself deeper into his heat, her tears soaking his white T-shirt. Leo held her, stroking her back, letting the folds of the fluffy green towel and the front of his body warm her and soothe her. It had been a horrible, tragic, rough day.

After a beat, Piper stopped crying. She was overcome by his nearness. She tipped up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his collarbone, just above the neckline of his shirt, and she felt his heart skip a beat.

He caught her upper arms lightly, and stepped back. Piper pulled the towel around her body, hiding her nakedness, even though there wasn't really a reason to since Leo was her spouse.

A slight flush of pink was high on his cheekbones. Oddly, she found it sweet.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Leo asked, huskily. For he had remembered how angry moments before Piper had been at him for not saving Prue. And how she had only tolerated him holding her when she had collapsed in her grief, because yes…she did love him….but yes…she had been pissed at him. Because in her mind, he should've saved Prue.

When Piper had been crying into his shoulder earlier on that wooden floor where Prue had died, Leo had quietly promised that he wasn't going anywhere. Even if the Elders called for him. Even if it was another for another charge of his. At that moment, in his mind, his wife and his family were far more important. Piper could've died amidst all that destruction. Prue unfortunately had.

"Piper?" he prompted again, as he realized that she hadn't answered him. That she was staring at him instead with her brown eyes, and they were traveling from the tile bathroom floor back up the length of his body and met his cerulean blue ones.

"Yes," she softly admitted.

At that admittance, Leo caught her around the waist, and then lifted her up into his arms towel and all, and carried her to their bedroom. As her back landed on the softness of her bed, and he straddled her hips, allowing his chest to hover over her, he finally bent down and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Piper's body sang within as Leo's heavenly kisses began their descend.

Piper had had her fair share of post trauma sex. It was one of those things that helped piece her back together, like showers…clean clothes…and comfort food. Though she knew neither of these things would abate her sorrow of losing Prue. She allowed this moment to be her saving grace, tender mercy.


End file.
